Ornella Vanoni, icon of Italian pop music, dies at 91

Vanoni sold more than 55 million records during her six-decade career. Ornella Vanoni, the Italian pop singer, songwriter and actress whose colourful career spanned six decades, died at her home in Milan on Friday aged 91, following a cardiac arrest. Tributes poured in for the pop icon, with Italy’s culture minister Alessandro Giuli hailing her as one of the country’s most original and refined artists whose unique voice and unparalleled interpretive ability left an important legacy in the history of Italian song, theatre and entertainment. Born in Milan on 22 September 1934, Vanoni began her artistic journey in the theatre, making her stage debut in 1956 after enrolling in the Academy of Dramatic Arts at Giorgio Strehler’s Piccolo Teatro. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, she gained early recognition for performing canzoni della mala (songs about the Milanese underworld), earning her the nickname cantante della mala. Her commercial success soared in the 1960s with hits including Senza fine and Che cosa c’è, both written by Gino Paoli, with whom she shared a long artistic collaboration. She also won the Festival of Neapolitan Song in 1964 with Tu si na cosa grande. Vanoni’s long career included eight participations in Italy’s Sanremo Music Festival, achieving a second-place finish in 1968 with Casa Bianca, as well as coming fourth in three different editions (1967, 1970, 1999). Vanoni sold more than 55 million records throughout her life. She also worked as an actress in film and television and embraced diverse musical genres, including collaborations on bossa nova and jazz projects, notably the album La voglia, la pazzia, l’incoscienza e l’allegria (1976), with Brazilian singer-songwriter Vinícius de Moraes and guitarist Toquinho, which was included among the 100 greatest Italian albums by Rolling Stone magazine. Other significant hits include La musica è finita (1967) and L’appuntamento (1970). During the 1980s, she took complete control of her artistic career ,writing lyrics, creating concept albums and receiving prestigious awards, including the Tenco Prize for best singer-songwriter, the first woman to do so. She also collaborated with Lucio Dalla, Paolo Conte and Gerry Mulligan, and reunited with Gino Paoli on the hugely successful Insieme tour in 1985. She released several albums in the 1990s and in 2004 her song L’appuntamento gained renewed worldwide interest when it was included in the soundtrack of the film Ocean’s Twelve. In 2008 she celebrated the 50th anniversary of her musical career with a concert in Milan’s Piazza Duomo in front of 35,000 people. Ten years later, at the age of 83, Vanoni surprised everyone by taking to the stage at Sanremo with Imparare ad amarsi, in a trio with Bungaro and Pacifico, winning the Critics’ Award for Best Performance. Vanoni was a frequent guest on Italian television chat show Che Tempo Che Fa and in recent years became known for her extreme frankness, ironic humour and self-deprecation, endearing herself further to her audience. During a 2023 appearance on the show, Vanoni said she would like Italian jazz trumpet player Paolo Fresu to play at funeral, and that she wished to wear a Dior dress and have her ashes sprinkled in the Venice lagoon.